Rolling out Facebook is constantly tweaking their news feed algorithm. The algorithm helps determine what users see and what they don’t, all in an effort to make the Facebook user experience is engaging and addicting as possible. The latest impact of the algorithm to the Facebook news feed: Website speed.

The company does note that under the new system, it’s possible that a slower site will see less referral traffic from Facebook, and is helpfully sharing tips for developers to improve their loading times.

This continues a trend for Facebook, putting an emphasis on website speed from a mobile device. They realize that 40 percent of users abandon after waiting more than three seconds for a page to load. This behavior was at least partially behind the development of Canvas and Instant Articles, which provide publishers an instant-load alternative.

Let’s take a closer look at the change to the Facebook news feed algorithm, as well as some of Facebook’s recommendations to keep your content at the top of the feed.

News Feed Update Favors Website Speed

With this update, we’ll soon take into account the estimated load time of a webpage that someone clicks to from any link in News Feed on the mobile app. Factors such as the person’s current network connection and the general speed of the corresponding webpage will be considered. If signals indicate the webpage will load quickly, the link to that webpage might appear higher in your feed.

As stated above, this update appears to impact mobile only. A slow load time does not guarantee low priority in the news feed, just as a fast load time does not guarantee high priority. But it is one of many factors that Facebook will consider.

Instant Articles present an alternate version of your web page that is hosted on Facebook servers. As a result, it loads instantly, which — in theory — provides an improved user experience. It would be easy to assume that such articles will get a boost.

Many publishers remain skeptical of the format due to the loss of control. While it isn’t easy to adjust, you must consider the increased views and improved the user experience when measuring value to the user and your brand.

I use Instant Articles. While I’m not bullish on the format, I consider it a necessary adoption for the time being.

When Will This Roll Out?

Facebook’s updates tend to be gradual, and this is no exception. In their announcement, Facebook says the update will be rolled out “gradually over the coming months.”

How much of an impact will this make to your page and brand? It’s impossible to say. But it would be smart to take a close look at whether the speed of your website can be improved in the interim.

Tools for Testing and Improving Website Speed

PageSpeed Insights: This is a Google tool that runs a test of both a desktop and mobile web page.

What’s nice about this tool is that it provides a list of specific recommendations for improving the speed of this page.

Note that you get recommendations for both desktop and mobile. The focus of Facebook’s news feed algorithm update is mobile. However, there’s no reason to ignore the performance of your website on a desktop.

This is actually Jon Loomer’s site speed tool of choice he finds it to be much more helpful and user-friendly — particularly for the non-techie — than the others listed below.

Page Speed: This is just a Firefox add-on that allows you to easily test the page you are currently looking at through PageSpeed Insights.

YSlow: This is a free Chrome extension from Yahoo! that provides site speed recommendations.

The program feels outdated, but it does the job.

WebPagetest: This tool runs three tests before showing a “waterfall view” of load performance and an optimization checklist.

This tool also has an outdated feel and will be overwhelming to non-techies, but that’s why you should send it to your tech person.

Facebook Algorithm is crucial to its success.

Facebook lives or dies by its News Feed, so getting it right is imperative. As they announced June 29th, small but significant tweaks to its algorithm – showing more content from the friends you care about and potentially less from pages – it’s also explaining the ‘core values’ that have served as guiding principles behind every improvement to your feed for several years.”

Building a Better News Feed for You

Facebook says that this is the first time these values have been publicly explained. Don’t expect any major plot twists – they’re fairly obvious on the whole – but it’s nice to see the reasoning behind every little tweak the company makes.

“Friends and family come first”

First up, Facebook says it prioritizes posts from close friends and family before any other kind of posts. It tries to learn your preferences for the exact type of posts you want to see depending on things such as how often you like photos from specific people and moves these to the top of your feed.

After friends and family, the company works with two other main expectations. First, that “your feed should inform,” whether with stories from current events, celebrity stories, or recipes.

Second, that “your feed should entertain.” Sometimes that means watching viral video or seeing funny photos, but it seems that even when it’s prioritizing posts from close people, Facebook always wants to make sure your feed doesn’t get too boring.

“A platform for all ideas”

Facebook says it’s “not in the business of picking which issues the world should read about.” (Some people would disagree, given the recent trending column ordeal, but I digress.)

Instead, it tries to connect people with ideas and stories they find most meaningful. That doesn’t mean only showing stories that people will find agreeable, but rather those they find most engaging.

For example, a Facebook study last year indicated that over a quarter of the links you read on your News Feed are from opposing political views – people are interested in hearing the opposition, no matter how strongly they disagree.

Facebook says that while it doesn’t favor specific types of sources of ideas, showing the stories people most want to see keeps them using the News Feed longer.

“Authentic communication”

In other words, truthfulness. The company says it works hard to disseminate genuine stories rather than hoaxes or things otherwise “misleading, sensational and spammy.”

If only they could get rid of chainmail posts.

“You control your experience”

This is basically things like allowing you to unfollow or hide posts, as well as mark them as “see first” to prioritize them. If you hide a post from someone, it indicates you probably want to read fewer stories from that person, and the News Feed algorithm reacts accordingly.

“Constant iteration”

Facebook says it views its work as “1 percent finished,” so it’s constantly iterating on the design and using feedback to improve your News Feed. It says it’s looking to be more transparent about the News Feed moving forward, hence today’s updates.

Pages may see less reach as friends and family get higher priority

Going back to the first value mentioned, Facebook says that it’s tweaking the News Feed algorithm to reflect it’s number one priority – connecting you with friends and family.

The company is making posts by your friends show up higher on your feed, something it says will particularly impact people with many friends. In other words, you’ll have to scroll less to read up on the people you care about.

As part of the change, Facebook says it anticipates “this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages.”

The amount of decline depends on your audience. If your posts tend to be the type of thing people share with their friends and family, they’ll do better. But if you mainly share dry updates, expect your pages to perform a little worse soon.

With more than 4.5 billion views and nearly 30 million profile picture updates every day, Facebook profiles have become the best place to curate your own identity and learn about others. Last September, we launched profile videos to give people a new way to bring their profiles to life.

We were blown away by the positive response of profile videos and the variety of creative ways people used them to show off their personality. Today, we’re further unlocking this creativity and lowering the barrier to expression by releasing the Facebook Profile Expression Kit.

The Facebook Profile Expression Kit lets people share videos they make in third-party apps directly into the Facebook profile video flow. The SDK is available now to a select group of beta partners for the iOS versions of their apps: MSQRD, Boomerang from Instagram, lollicam, BeautyPlus, Cinemagraph Pro from Flixel, and Vine. Consumers can now use these apps to create fun and personality-infused profile videos with just a few taps. Developers enjoy attribution within News Feed every time someone uploads a profile video created by their app.

If you have or are building a video app that can help more than 1.5 billion people better express themselves, you can learn more about the SDK here and apply for consideration as we expand access to additional developers. – Facebook Development

Facebook Reactions Are Here

UPDATED Feb. 24, 2016

Facebook reactions are the new way to judge your loved ones! But, maybe they will also satisfy the cravings of trolls and nasty commenters. A quick angry face might subdue a nasty thot thought… but that’s just my optimistic way of thinking.
Released globally, the new reactions are available to everyone. React with care.

HOW TO
To add a reaction, hold down the Like button on mobile or hover over the Like button on desktop to see the reaction image options, then tap either Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.

Original Post Feb. 6, 2016

As noted by Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox to Bloomberg recently – and then re-affirmed by Mark Zuckerberg himself in Facebook full-year earnings results announcement – Facebook’s ‘Reactions’ emoji toolbar will soon be made available to all users, everywhere. For those unaware, ‘Reactions’, which The Social Network announced back in October, offers a way for Facebook users to respond to posts with a simple, emotional signal ‘other than Like’. The typical use-case of Reactions was explained by Zuckerberg at one of his regular Town Hall Q & A events last year:

“Not every moment is a good moment – if you share something that’s sad, like a refugee crisis that touches you or a family member passes away, it may not be comfortable to like that post… I do think it’s important to give people more options than liking it.”

But before Reactions go site-wide, we thought it might be a good time to reflect on the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the new implementation to get you prepared for what to expect when those little tiny characters start popping up all over your News Feed. For those looking to better understand the new feature, here’s the lowdown – ‘Reactions 101’, if you will – a guide to help you understand why the addition of the new tool is not only an important move for Facebook, but how these tiny, cartoon faces may also prove to be extremely valuable for your business.

Facebook confirmed that instead of the often-requested “dislike” to counter the existing Like button, founder Mark Zuckerberg explains that this idea is just about giving more options to express yourself.

Facebook Reactions are about all of the feelings; love, sadness and empathy. They are what you’re trying to project, the test is currently limited to users in Ireland and Spain. If you are there (or use a browser proxy service like Hola to fake it) you’ll see something like the picture above, after long pressing the Like button on the website or mobile apps. Depending on how things go, this could roll out to the rest of the billion or so Facebook users soon, but it looks like any official support for dislike is never going to be in the plans.

Today we’re launching a test of Reactions — a more expressive Like button. The Like button has been a part of Facebook for a long time. Billions of Likes are made every day, and Liking things is a simple way to express yourself.For many years though, people have asked us to add a “dislike” button. Not every moment is a good moment, and sometimes you just want a way to express empathy. These are important moments where you need the power to share more than ever, and a Like might not be the best way to express yourself.At a recent Townhall Q&A, I shared with our community that we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to give you better options for expressing yourself, while keeping the experience simple and respectful. Today we’re starting to test this.Reactions gives you new ways to express love, awe, humor and sadness. It’s not a dislike button, but it does give you the power to easily express sorrow and empathy — in addition to delight and warmth. You’ll be able to express these reactions by long pressing or hovering over the Like button. We’re starting to test Reactions in Ireland and Spain and will learn from this before we bring the experience to everyone. We hope you like this – or can better express how you’re feeling!

Staying Within The App With Facebook Messenger

Last week I wrote a post about Social Media Trends, in it I mentioned staying within apps will be the trend for 2016.

Facebook has just announced Transportation in Messenger.

Meaning, you can request an uber via the app by requesting a ride from a car service without ever needing to download an extra app or leave a conversation. You can now request a ride from a car service without ever needing to download an extra app or leave a conversation. Facebook Transportation through Messenger is super easy and doesn’t take you away from the plans that you’re making with your friends or family – It doesn’t take you away from the app you are making the plans on.

Messenger is your place to communicate seamlessly with everyone – from making plans with friends, sharing pictures and moments with your loved ones, sending money, and talking to your favorite businesses about a purchase or getting updates on your item’s delivery. Millions of people all over the world use Messenger every month to engage with businesses because it’s simple, secure, convenient and keeps everything in one place.

Technology can make all of our engagements with businesses better, and over the past year Messenger has added integrations with select retailers, household brands and hotels to make your most common and every day business interactions more productive.

Today, we’re expanding the services available to you with our launch of transportation on Messenger. With this new feature, you can request a ride from a car service without ever needing to download an extra app or leave a conversation. It’s super easy and doesn’t take you away from the plans that you’re making with your friends or family.

Whether you’re meeting friends for lunch, on your way to a concert, or running late for work, Messenger and our partners can get you to your destination faster.

To get started, download the latest version of Messenger. Then, from within a conversation, tap the more menu and choose Transportation. You can also search directly for Uber – our first partner – and tap the car icon to request a ride. From there, you’ll receive updates on your driver’s status and notify your friends that you’ve called a ride. With the ability to request, track and pay for a ride in Messenger, we’re making transportation as simple as sending a message.

Your first ride is free

For a limited time, you’ll get a free ride the first time you use this feature (up to $20 value) with Uber. All you have to do to claim your free ride is link your existing Uber account or set up a new account within Messenger and request a ride. Driver status updates and payment receipts will get delivered to a private conversation between you and Uber. With everything in one place, you can seamlessly keep track of your ride and payment history.

The fine print

This service is currently in testing and will be available to select users in the locations where Uber operates in the United States. More countries and other transportation partners will be available soon.

It seems some of you fools are falling for this new Facebook hoax called the Zuckerberg ‘Thank You’.

Mark Zuckerberg is not giving $4.5 million to Facebook users who share a “thank you” message.

This latest facebook hoax is not nearly as prolific as a few before, but I’ve seen two posts on my newsfeed today. I thought it would wound down, but a week later I wish you idiots, would please make it stop.

In a public letter to his newborn daughter, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he and his wife would be giving 99% of their Facebook shares to the causes of ‘advancing human potential’ and ‘promoting equality’. In the letter, he notes:

As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

We will give 99% of our Facebook shares — currently about $45 billion — during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.

The prankster who created this ridiculous hoax message has obviously used wide spread publicity about the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announcement to add totally undeserved substance to his or her claims. And, of course, the hoax is reminiscent of several other hoaxes that have falsely claimed that you could get money or prizes just by sending on a message. The most long-lived of these is a hoax that claimed that Microsoft’s Bill Gates would send you money if you participated in a ‘beta test’ by forwarding an email. Versions of this hoax have circulated since at least 1997.

If this Mark Zuckerberg hoax comes your way, don’t be tempted to share it. All such messages do is clutter our networks with even more pointless rubbish. Copying and pasting the message may also make you look rather gullible and foolish in front of your Facebook friends.

It said,

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is giving away $45 billion of Facebook stock. What you may not have heard is that he plans to give 10% of it away to people like YOU and ME! All you have to do is copy and paste this message into a post IMMEDIATELY. At midnight PST, Facebook will search through the day’s posts and award 1000 people with $4.5 million EACH as a way of saying thank you for making Facebook such a powerful vehicle for connection.

For the sake of all that is social media, think before you post. If you want more information about its stupidity just check out Snopes. But, Fyi… if Mark Zuckerberg was giving money away to facebook users as a ‘Thank You’, I kind of think it might be written somewhere other than your friend Jeff’s Facebook feed. The New York Times or maybe 60 minutes would have mentioned it. For that matter, has coke ever thrown money out of vending machines or Oreo given you free cookies because you went shopping. The answer is no.

It’s a necessary evil for everyone mostsome …me to compulsively open Facebook on my phone and computer like it’s a full bowl of potato chips – I dip in there for another short peak only to find the mindless scrolling leads to the end of a page that asks me to reload.

Just because you scroll, doesn’t mean you need to see things you don’t want to see.

UNFOLLOW

Just because you are ‘friends’ doesn’t mean you need to see their kid go off to school and hear their political opinions. Just UNFOLLOW them.
Ya gotta be crazy to Unfollow Jimmy Fallon but whether it’s a facebook business page or your high school lab partner you can just Unfollow them instead of unfriending them. Then you won’t see their stuff in your news feed.

NEWS FEED

To go beyond the Unfollow – You can adjust your facebook news feed preferences to control what you see. You have two choices Most Recent or Top Stories.

Top Stories (Default): Shows the most popular stories from friends, Pages and groups at the top of your News Feed

Most Recent: Shows stories from friends, Pages and groups in the order they were posted

CHAT

There are few things about Facebook that frustrate me more than the chat feature. I don’t use it, even though it has the potential of being fantastic – for me it’s irritating and an additional burden on my day. With that said there’s nothing better than sharing photos, docs, messages via facebook when you need to or if you don’t have someone’s mobile number or email at the ready. So there lies the frustration.

To me, chat is just the most unfinished feature of facebook – like the space has been changing and evolving so quickly that facebook can’t keep up.

The easy fix is to just Turn Off Chat. There are a bunch of preferences in the Chat section on the Right sidebar of your facebook feed on desktop.

BIRTHDAY ALERTS

Oy! There are like a zillion different ways Facebook reminds you of Birthdays.

Really there only one way to Turn Off Birthday Notifications.

Settings > Notifications > On Facebook > Birthdays

PHOTO TAG

If you only want pictures of yourself from your good side posted to your timeline for all to see – you can do two things.

If you can’t pronounce Jen Lew you’ve got some serious issues but there are a lot of people out there that have some funky pronunciations and if you are meeting a client or just don’t want to embarrass yourself this could be extremely handy.

If none of the predetermined clips quite get your name right, you can type in your own pronunciation key.

If you don’t see the prompt, you can also manually check for the feature from the ‘About’ tab on your profile, although it still won’t show up for everyone.

How do I add a pronunciation guide to my name?

Adding a pronunciation guide to your name lets you add an audio recording of your name to your profile. People can play this pronunciation guide to hear how to say your name. To add a pronunciation guide:

Go to your profile and click About.

Click Details About You in the left column below your profile photo.

Click How do you pronounce your name? below Name Pronunciation.

Select a suggested pronunciation of your first and last name, or write your own. Clickto the right of any pronunciation to make sure it sounds the way you want it to.

Facebook Is Improving Mobile Profiles

Soon, you’ll be able to film a short, looping video clip that will play for anyone who visits your profile. Profile videos will let show a part of yourself you couldn’t before, and add a new dimension to your profile.

People visit Facebook profiles more than four billion times per day, and we’re continually looking for ways to make profiles the best place for people to curate their online identities and connect with others.

Today, we’re unveiling some new, mobile-friendly features for Facebook profiles. There are three main improvements that will give you more opportunities to express who you are and control the content showcased on your profile.

Bring Your Profile to Life
The world has changed since we first introduced profiles in 2004. On News Feed and profiles, we’re seeing people create and view more videos than ever before. Today we’re starting to test the next step in an obvious evolution of profiles: profile videos. Soon, you’ll be able to film a short, looping video clip that will play for anyone who visits your profile. Profile videos will let show a part of yourself you couldn’t before, and add a new dimension to your profile.

We’re not ignoring profile pictures either; we’ve also built some new features that will help you better let your personality shine through your profile picture. When more than 26 million people used our Celebrate Pride filter, it was more apparent than ever that people use their profile picture to show who they are— even if it’s just for a moment in time. Profile pictures are not just static portraits. They represent what’s going in your life right now and what’s important to you, and we want to give people the tools to better express themselves in this way.

As part of that effort, we’ve started to roll out the ability to set a temporary version of your profile picture that reverts back to your previous profile picture at a specified time. Want to support your team in the week leading up to the big game, commemorate a special milestone like a birthday or vacation or show off a great #tbt picture? Now you can create a temporary profile picture specifically for those moments and events. It can be a visual status update to let your friends know what’s going on in your life today, or it can be your statement of solidarity for a cause you feel strongly about.

Improved Profile Controls
You’ve always been able to control who can see the information you showcase on your profile, and now we’re making it easier for you to see what others can view by introducing a new customizable space at the top of your profile. You can curate this space— and convey what you want people to know about you— by changing the visibility of the fields that show up here. You can also fill out the new, one-line ‘Bio’ field: select certain public About fields like work and education details to appear there; and even visually highlight what’s important to you by choosing up to five Featured Photos to be showcased at the top of your profile. While this space is visible to anyone who visits your profile, you have full control of what information appears here.

Design Improvements to Your Mobile Profile
Along with these new profile features, we’ve made some design changes to mobile profile that improve the profile layout and better present information about you and your friends in a more visually engaging way. We’re moving your profile picture and video to literally put you front-and-center on your profile. Profile pictures are now centered, and we’ve made them bigger to give you more real estate to show off what you can do with our new creative tools.

We’ve also made some small changes that will help you learn more about the people you’ve just met and ensure you see the most interesting visual highlights from the friends you already know. People love seeing photos and mutual friends when viewing the profiles of friends or someone they’ve just met, so those are easier to see now on profile. Photos and friends are right at the top, making getting to know someone and seeing the world through your friends’ eyes as easy as scrolling.

We’re starting to test all of these features to a small number of iPhone users in the UK and California, and we’ll be rolling them out to more people soon. We believe these improvements to profile will give people more ways to connect and share with each other, and express themselves in meaningful ways. We can’t wait to see how people use them.

Because of the post(s) going viral on Facebook …again. For the billionth time.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the podium at a press conference September 29th, 2015 and appealed to users of his popular social media network to stop being so God damn gullible when it comes to sharing bullshit about changes in Facebook policy.

Facebook users will have to start paying a fee of £5.99 to keep their status set to private.

The message claims, users can avoid this proposed fee and maintain their current privacy settings just by copying and pasting the information on Facebook. But, alas, warns the message, those who do not comply with either of the two options will find that all of the information they have previously published on Facebook – even deleted material – will subsequently be made public.

Or.. the other hoax implies the following

As of September 27th , 2015 at 10:50p.m. Eastern standard time, I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, or posts, both past and future. By this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates.

There is not even a minuscule thread of truth in this absurd piece of Facebook driven flotsam.

In fact, the message is just one more variant in a long line of ridiculous hoaxes that have claim that Facebook or some other online service would start charging if users did not repost a message.

Facebook has no plans to start charging users for normal access to the network. In fact, any such plan would likely be an act of financial suicide for the company. And, even if they did have such a plan, they certainly would not impose the absurd and ridiculous condition that users must pass on a silly status message in order to keep a free account.

For added impact, this variant of the hoax tacks on the mind-numbingly stupid claim that previously private user information will be made publicly available unless users repost or pay. This is apparently a rather lame attempt to panic privacy conscious users into reposting the nonsense on their walls.

So, if one of these nonsensical messages comes your way, please do not further clutter the Interwebs by reposting it. And, do the poster a favor by gently pointing out that he or she has fallen for a hoax and share this post instead.

Some of the Facebook statuses have included that the media, notably “Channel 11” or “Channel 13,” have reported on the issue. They begin with the phrase “Better safe than sorry.”

Another similar post claims folks can pay a fee to have their information privatized:

Now it’s official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to “private”. If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (I said paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste.

If Facebook users, consult the company’s legal terms to understand what the company can do and not do with your information. One section of the terms says when you publish content or information using the Public setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).

The Internet has been simmering lately over privacy concerns surrounding Facebook‘s Messenger app, which will soon become the only way mobile users can send and receive messages on the social network.

Some users were notified Wednesday that they could no longer see or send messages unless they downloaded the app, and more users will get the same message in the weeks and months to come.

But amid the forced adoption of Messenger, some bloggers have cried foul over seemingly draconian permissions required for users of the Android version of the app. Most of the criticisms echo a December Huffington Post article that highlighted several Orwellian-sounding policies, like the ability of the app to “call phone numbers without your intervention,” and “use the camera at any time without your permission.”

“Facebook has pushed this too far. It’s time we stood up and said ‘no!’” The Huffington Post article said.

But according to Facebook, the concerns about its Messenger app are overblown, and based on misinformation.

Much of the problem, Facebook says, is due to Android’s rigid policy on permissions. Facebook says it doesn’t get to write its own, and instead must use generic language provided to them by Android. The language in the permissions “doesn’t necessarily reflect the way the Messenger app and other apps use them,” Facebook wrote in a Help Center article designed to address what it calls misinformation on the topic.

Facebook also says the quotes in the Huffington Post article are outdated. Google recently changed the language it uses in its Android app permissions. The updated policy for the Facebook Messenger app on Android can be found at the bottom of this page, under the “view details” link in the Permissions heading.

Facebook says it has more control over the permissions language it uses in Apple s iOS operating system, which handles the process differently.

Android users must agree to all permissions at once, before using the app, for every feature an app might use. On iPhones, users agree to the permissions when they come up during the normal use of the app. For instance, if an iPhone user never makes a voice call with Facebook Messenger, the app might never ask for permission to use the phone’s microphone.

While Android app users must agree to all permissions before using the app, iPhoneusers can decline to give permission to the app for some features, like access to the address book and microphone, but still use the app to send messages. Due to this, the iPhone version of the app is superior for particularly privacy-conscious users.

Regardless of the permissions, both the Android and the iOS Messenger apps are subject to the data use policies and terms that govern all Facebook users and every app within the Facebook family.

The bottom line is that, while some users might think it’s a drag to download a separate app for a feature that was once included in a single app, they’re not actually giving up a significant amount of additional privacy in the process.

Seems like everyone is talking about their organic reach falling through the floor lately.

Organic reach is the number of people who see posts from your Facebook page in their news feed.Here’s how Facebook defines organic reach:

Organic reach is the total number of unique people who were shown your post through unpaid distribution.

Many page managers still think their posts are (and should be) shown to all their fans.
Four years ago… maybe. But not today!

Facebook now uses a complex algorithm to determine what users see in their news feed. And there was outrage recently when some page managers & marketers realized Facebook’s algorithm was showing their posts to fewer of their fans.

And yes, there was a time when I hated the news feed algorithm — but then I learned to leverage it for good.

Organic Reach is Down, But Facebook Says “Don’t be Sad”

organic-reachFacebook has always had trouble explaining changes & new features to its users.

The social network has done a poor job informing page owners about how the news feed works. Though, they have made improvements.

Facebook now updates users more frequently about changes — especially changes to the news feed algorithm.
A Facebook official wrote a great post recently about impacts to organic reach.
The article addressed questions like:
Why Organic Reach has Dropped There are 2 main reasons.

1) More and more content is being created and shared every day. Today, thanks to devices like smartphones, many people can share this content with just a few swipes of the finger or taps of a button. On average there are 1500 stories that could appear in a person’s News Feed each time you log into Facebook.

2) Rather than showing people all possible content, News Feed is designed to show each person on Facebook the content that’s most relevant to them. Of the 1500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300. To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person.

Why All Your Fans Don’t See All Your Posts Several other online feed platforms display all content in real time. But the real-time approach has limitations. People only have so much time to consume stories, and people often miss content that isn’t toward the top when they log on. This means they often do not see the content that’s most valuable to them. In our tests, we’ve always found that the News Feed ranking system offers people a better, more engaging experience on Facebook. Additionally, given the amount of content in the average News Feed, using a real-time system for content would actually cause Pages’ organic reach to decrease further.

Why Facebook isn’t Just Trying to Make Money organic-reach(great question that I’m glad Facebook had the guts to address.

3) Our goal is always to provide the best experience for the people that use Facebook. We believe that delivering the best experiences for people also benefits the businesses that use Facebook. If people are more active and engaged with stories that appear in News Feed, they are also more likely to be active and engaged with content from businesses. How Reach has Declined on other Websites Many large marketing platforms have seen declines in organic reach. Online search engines, for instance, provided a great deal of free traffic to businesses and websites when they initially launched. People and businesses flocked to these platforms, and as the services grew there was more competition to rank highly in search results. Because the search engines had to work much harder to surface the most relevant and useful content, businesses eventually saw diminished organic reach.

4) While many platforms experience a change in organic reach, some are more transparent about these changes than others. Facebook has always valued clear, detailed, actionable reports that help businesses see what’s happening with their content. And over time we will continue to expand and improve our already strong reporting tools. The Good News Some page managers are wondering whether to invest time & money getting more people to Like their Facebook pages.

They ask: What’s the value of someone liking my page if fans don’t see my posts in their news feed?

Fans absolutely have value. Fans make your ads more effective. When an ad has social context — in other words, when a person sees their friend likes your business — your ads drive, on average, 50% more recall and 35% higher online sales lift. Fans also make the ads you run on Facebook more efficient in our ads auction. Ads with social context are a signal of positive quality of the ad, and lead to better auction prices. You can use insights about your fans — like where they live, and their likes and interests — to inform decisions about reaching your current and prospective customers Fans can give your business credibility Fans may represent your best customers, but it’s important to note that they don’t represent all of your customers or potential customers. For example, if your auto dealership has 5,000 fans, those fans represent only a fraction of the people that matter to your business. Fans can help you achieve your business objectives on Facebook, but having fans should not be thought of as an end unto itself.

How to Use Facebook for Business Organic content still has value on Facebook, and Pages that publish great content — content that teaches people something, entertains them, makes them think, or in some other way adds value to their lives — can still reach people in News Feed. However, anticipating organic reach can be unpredictable, and having a piece of content “go viral” rarely corresponds to a business’s core goals. Your business will see much greater value if you use Facebook to achieve specific business objectives, like driving in-store sales or boosting app downloads.

How to Stay on Top of the Changes We’ll always innovate on behalf of the people who use Facebook. And we must be more transparent with and helpful to the businesses that market on Facebook. We’re working hard to improve our communications about upcoming product changes.

For example, in April we let you know about how right column ads will be changing to increase engagement and to make it easier for businesses to create these ads. We’re committed to helping your business grow and making sure you get the most from your investment in Facebook.

Key Takeaways organic-reach
Now that you’ve read Facebook’s side, here are some ways page managers can respond to this new information:

Continue whining about loss of organic reach Ignore changes — keep doing what you’re doing
Embrace changes — leverage for your success I chose #3. Sure, this means having to change my Facebook marketing strategy – or spend more than I expected on Facebook ads. But that’s part of business!
Times change, platforms change. What works & doesn’t work changes. Deal with it!
You have to spend money on Facebook ads to get new Likes. You have to spend money on Facebook ads to show off your products. You have to spend money on boosted posts so that your fans see your content.

These are all requirements for running a business on Facebook. Nobody should expect a free ride! If you unfollow, unfriend or unlike the folks you don’t care to see in your news feed, your experience on Facebook will improve dramatically. Use Facebook interest lists to keep track of important people & pages.
And don’t just skim your news feed, when you see content from your favorite pages or people — Like the posts or leave a comment, so you see more from those pages in the future.

What do you think of the recent changes to the news feed?

Was Facebook’s explanation sufficient?

This post originally appeared on the Post Planner blog.
About the Author: Scott Ayres
Co-author of Facebook All-In-One for Dummies and “Ambassador of Awesome” at Post Planner, Scott became addicted to social media before even MySpace (the first time around!). Any given day he spends 20+ hours on Facebook! He’s been married for 20 years and has 3 kiddos who are his world! Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

– See more at: http://www.postplanner.com/facebook-organic-reach-down/#sthash.p5lehxND.dpuf

Facebook reach has dropped.. considerably. Facebook definitely wants you to pay-to-play and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, because facebook advertising is potentially a very successful method of gaining revenue and maintaining a strong brand presence online. What I am saying is that the following tips are fool proof, essentially free, ways guaranteed to improve your facebook reach and gain you more revenue. Plus, I’m telling you what you should not do – so now you have no excuses.

1. Be personal
Let your personality shine, I like to say “let your freak flag fly”. It is necessary to entertain your fans and share stories and create engaging content that you would ordinarily share in person to your friends or customers if they were standing in front of you.

Don’t: Just post about you and information about your business.Don’t: Ignore your fans and followers – Like their posts and respond to their comments.Don’t: Only go on facebook when you have something to post.

2. Use Facebook to push traffic to other platforms.
Each social network is a unique and fantastic way to target your niche customer because not all sites function the same. If you find that you enjoy using another social network, then use Facebook to push traffic to other platforms. You do not need to have a great presence on every social network – you need to pick 1 or as many as you can truly handle and then make your presence known via engaging and posting content regularly on just that one site. But, you do need to create profiles on as many social sites as you can, with photos and information about your business so someone who doesn’t use Facebook, will be able to find you on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp, Google+ or someplace else on the web.

Don’t: Rely on just FacebookDon’t: Post sporadically and then never check the site againDon’t: Follow and Like every single person, place or thing humanly imaginable and think that will gain you more followersDon’t: Ignore your analytics and insightsDon’t: Forget to upload your email list and share your page from your personal friend page

3. Grow an email list
Email addresses are way more valuable than a Like on Facebook. Emails are the strategic way to reach your community outside of Facebook. You are in control of an email address, you decide when to reach out to them and what you want to say directly to that contact. Create engaging, fun and smart ways to encourage customers to opt-in to your email list.

Don’t: Rely on staff to ask for emails when customers check out.Don’t: Leave a sign in book on the desk or counter and never look at it againDon’t: Forget to add an email sign up to your website and facebook

The way I see it is… the only thing we can do as business owners is to adapt as much as possible to the inevitable changes ahead.

For more indepth tools, tricks and strategies that will keep your business traffic flowing and stay ahead of the competition; contact us directly at hi@jenlew.com – join our email list for more tips or give us a call: 917-289-0749

Mari Smith is a trusted, experienced high volume expert on all things Facebook so I don’t discount her posts when I see them.

Mari takes a contradictory stance and stands on her soapbox to defend the much hyped video by Derek Muller that I posted earlier in the week. Derek’s pov is that Facebook is not doing it’s job with facebook advertising by contributing to illegitimate likes to business pages and skewing results.

In Mari’s view; user error is the cause to most of a facebook business pages issues with advertising. She says “Facebook ads are the MOST targeted traffic your advertising dollars can buy” there is no disputing that.. and she adds “Bottom line, now that organic reach has plummeted for the majority of Facebook Pages, it simply has to be part of your social media marketing strategy to include even a nominal budget for Facebook ads. BUT, there is an art and a science to getting it right. Unless you have money to throw away (!), it’s crucial that you take time to properly learn the ins and outs of Facebook’s Power Editor.”

Now, is she writing this on behalf of facebook as a sponsored supporter or writing because she believes with all of her heart that Facebook is no doubt legitimately doing good with advertising – this I’m not sure of. But, what I am sure of is that I agree with both of them.

Then there’s Jon Loomer… he’s what I consider the king of Facebook Advertising it’s his niche. His take is… “the problem is that Facebook is going to target your ad at people most likely to perform your desired action. In some cases, that could be at people who have liked thousands of pages.” But, the most important detail Jon points out is that the results of the test in the Derek Muller video is from 2012. While Jon disagrees with a lot of the results found by Muller… he agrees with the fact that Likes by paid “likers” or click farms can skew the deal… but he knows from experience that the results of facebook success are dependant on your expertise with Facebook Advertising.

If you still use Facebook ads as if it’s 2012, you deserve the results you get.

The bottom line is this… Experience with Facebook Advertising is necessary. Practice makes perfect and trial and error are definitely in your favor with Facebook Advertising. You need to take the time to use Power Editor or higher an expert.

I say it time and time again to clients “It’s not the amount of likes on a page …it’s the quality of likes on the page”. The client looks at me twisted and acts like they understand but a week later they ask why there aren’t more likes on their page. repeat.

Finally, I’ve found Derek Muller who can explain it all way better than I can in this video. He explains that there are two ways to buy likes for your facebook page.

1. Illicit Way: Buy them from businesses who sell you likes.

2. Legit Way: Buy Facebook advertising.

Either way… the amount of likes on your page don’t mean nothin’ to the success of your business’ reach on facebook or to anyone who might buy your products. Successful businesses on Facebook create interest in their posts and the page itself by sharing posts, and posting original creative content. Thus creating loyal fans and followers.
Period. Exclamation Point.

I beg of you… if you want likes on your page or if you buy facebook advertising, or boost posts thinking that it is increasing the amount reach on your facebook page Watch the video… Muller explains in a very clear, substantiated way; why and how those Likes mean nothing more than the signatures on your yearbook in high school. All those signatures didn’t mean a hill of beans unless they were true friends that you spent quality time with or had strong lasting memories with, who you even hoped to see at your next high school reunion, or no less spoke to once a month Or …are even Friends with you on Facebook and not just acquaintances.

The basic gist of this Likes vs. quality customers conundrum is this.Likes Mean Nothing To The Overall Reach And Success Of Your Company.

Your business’s overall goal is to sell more, reach more customers and encourage them to hear your stories and enjoy being apart of you business’ world. You want them to engage, comment, like a post, and share. Not just Like your page as if it’s some popularity contest.

Evidence Facebook’s revenue is based on fake likes.
My first vid on the problem with Facebook: http://bit.ly/1dXudqY
I know first-hand that Facebook’s advertising model is deeply flawed. When I paid to promote my page I gained 80,000 followers in developing countries who didn’t care about Veritasium (but I wasn’t aware of this at the time). They drove my reach and engagement numbers down, basically rendering the page useless. I am not the only one who has experienced this. Rory Cellan-Jones had the same luck with Virtual Bagel:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-…

The US Department of State spent $630,000 to acquire 2 million page likes and then realized only 2% were engaged.http://wapo.st/1glcyZo

I thought I would demonstrate that the same thing is still happening now by creating Virtual Cat (http://www.facebook.com/MyVirtualCat). I was surprised to discover something worse – false likes are coming from everywhere, including Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia. So even those carefully targeting their campaigns are likely being duped into spending real money on fake followers. Then when they try to reach their followers they have to pay again.

And it’s possible to be a victim of fake likes without even advertising. Pages that end up on Facebook’s “International Suggested Pages” are also easy targets for click-farms seeking to diversify their likes. http://tnw.co/NsflrC

Facebook analyzed the past year’s worth of posts to reveal the top global trends 2013 Year in Review

Top Life Events
Check out the life events people added to their Timeline most frequently in 2013.

1. Added a relationship, got engaged or got married
2. Traveled
3. Moved
4. Ended a relationship
5. First met a friend
6. Added a family member, expecting a baby or had a baby
7. Got a pet
8. Lost a loved one
9. Got a piercing
10. Quit a habit

Top Check-Ins Around The World
Explore the places around the world with the most check-ins (excluding transportation hubs).

Top Life Events in the U.S.
1. Added a Relationship
2. Got Married
3. Got Engaged
4. Traveled
5. Moved
6. Ended a Relationship
7. Had a Baby
8. Expecting a Baby
9. First Met
10. Lost a Loved One
These lists are available on Facebook Stories at FacebookStories.com/2013, or you can download them. http://newsroom.fb.com/Trends/770/2013-Year-in-Review

Have you ever wondered how Facebook ranks your friends for you? The company keeps a score for everyone you interact with on the social network.

This affects the order of results when you start typing a name into the search box, the people that appear in your Friends pane when someone visits your profile, whose content shows up in your News Feed, and pretty much any list that displays who you interact with on the site. To put this in layman’s terms, Facebook tracks who you interact with or stalk, and vice versa.

As a result, Facebook users are often curious to know how the service ranks their friends. Many people have created tools to list these figures, and Arjun Sreedharan‘s is one of easiest to use.

If you are concerned that someone, somewhere will see your photo and think you are a terrible person for laughing at a dinner party or you are afraid you look too fat in those capris, then you have these three options to chose when deciding who can see your stuff.

Only Me = no one else can find it in search

Friends = friends will see it in their search results

Public = anyone who searches for it can find it

In all seriousness, no matter how many times you share that uber long post going around, with detailed instructions asking your friends to click this or unclick that to protect your privacy… facebook does not care about your privacy all that much.

Especially now that they’ve partnered a division with Google (Big Data) — it’s a lock that they really don’t care. The shits free man. You have the choice whether you want to use it or not or whether you want your friends tagging you in photos or not.

With all this in mind your best bet at controlling what is seen by facebook users is following the steps outlined in the links below and making sure that you are not tagged in ANY photos and you monitor your privacy settings like a hawk – and even then I don’t think you can prevent someone, somehow finding out that you ate a chili dog with everything on it.

Check out Mari Smith’s post on Facebook for her help in clearing all this up.

I know I’m making light of what’s on the average persons facebook page and that there are people in certain situations that want or need to maintain their privacy — to them my only advice is.. get the heck off facebook dude.

SIZE MATTERS!
I was told the correct size for posts on facebook was 400 x 400px and I believed every infographic on the planet.
But, according to Hugh Briss whose company Social Identities designs social media graphics and backgrounds — and does a darn good job of it I might ad.

Mari Smith Marketing Mastermind Luncheon in New York at Sarabeth’s in Tribeca on August 14, 2013.
Jen Lew chatting with Not just Mari Smith but a ton of other dynamic entrepreneurs and digitally savvy individuals.

Mari Smith and a dynamic group of business owners and marketers at Sarabeth’s in NYC #mastermind

Mari Smith and a dynamic group of business owners and marketers at Sarabeth’s in NYC #mastermind

Learning first hand Facebook advice from Mari Smith

Mastermind with Mari Smith in NYC

Engaged group of marketing leaders and entrepreneurs with Mari Smith at a Luncheon in NYC August 2013

I met Mari Smith! My clients are so lucky that I learn from the best 🙂

Facebook announced today that it will let people book restaurant reservations from their smartphone!
This means you no longer have to login to the OpenTable app or onto a restaurant website. Just stay on Facebook ..where you were anyway (let’s be honest).

Now when you visit a restaurant’s facebook business page, you can book directly from the page – this feature will be available to the 20,000 restaurants on OpenTable in North America. This is definitely in direct competition with Yelp – who also has an OpenTable integration – so as “liking” pages and adding reviews to pages becomes more prevalent Yelp is going to see some serious competition.

In another change Facebook added tv listings to it’s mobile app – this means that TV shows & Movies that have facebook pages, now those pages will display the next local time and channel it’s playing.

As a social media marketer this is a huge breakthrough for small business – no longer will customers have to ‘think’ about where to look for a restaurant or go to another app for movie times or tv listings – you will just stay on facebook.

I’m still such a noob when using Facebook Advertising.. what I know for sure is that Boost is pretty much a waste of time. At least it is these days — who knows how it will change over the next few months. It’s a time consuming process learning the successes of facebook advertising but when it works and you get it right – it feels so good. I have followed Jon Loomer’s tips and how to’s and Power Editor is the only way to go.

Lots of confusion flying around about #hashtag #privacy. This brand new feature is rolling out to all users. Here’s the scoop on privacy:

* Hashtags work on personal profile posts, fan page posts, group posts, event posts, and all comments.
* As with all personal profile features on Facebook, privacy settings prevail.
* If you publish a post on your profile to friends only, and the post contains a hashtag – yes, the hashtag will be clickable and open up to display all other posts on Facebook containing that hashtag.
* But, ONLY friends can see friends-only posts that show up in hashtag searches.
* Public posts—with or without hashtags—are public.
* Private (friends-only) posts—with or without hashtags—are just that: private and visible to friends only.
*Even when friends include hashtags in comments on your friends-only thread, your post is still private and visible just to your friends.
*With hashtags shared in private groups, that clickable hashtag will open to show public posts with that tag (along with any friends’ posts with that tag), but posts from the private group would only show to members.
*Individual comments on threads do not surface in hashtag searches; just posts show in searches.

It’s time for you to update your Facebook Business Page …or get one if you’ve been living under a rock 😉

How to optimize your business page for Facebook Graph Search

Claim your business URL – check this post for instructions how to claim your unique vanity URL like mine http://www.facebook.com/jenlewmarketing

Complete ALL of the information sections in the About section of your business page

Category

Subcategories

Address/Location

Short Description

Description

General Info

Contact Info

Food Styles

Specialties

Services

Team

Content & Engagement – Make comments on other pages and friend pages don’t just post about you and your business. Be sure to use images or video as often as possible. Encourage engagement…. ask questions.

Edgerank – this is the algorithm facebook uses to keep pages engaged with other pages that are often engaged with you. Basically …if in real life you only talked to one person at a dinner party then nobody else is going to come over and talk to you. Engage… chat… be social.

Posting the same post on Facebook and Twitter is a controversial topic for me.
Here are 3 simple rules.

You should post unique content on each social network as often as possible.

Connecting a Facebook Business Page to Twitter is great, Go at it! You can post to Twitter as much as you like.

Connecting Twitter to Facebook I don’t recommend it – but sometimes it might be right

My friend Fran who is a savvy business woman using social media to stay connected with her clients, is a perfect example of how and when to consider posting from Twitter to Facebook.

When I began coaching Fran, she decided to focus on learning Twitter and getting comfortable with using it – so we decided to link her Twitter page to her Facebook business page. This strategy was used because she was afraid she would not have the time to post on both social networks and Fran wanted to learn how to use each network individually.

We considered our options and we decided better to stay connected with fans and followers on both networks – at the same time because in her case, not all the same followers were on twitter that were on facebook.

This was a temporary strategy – now that Fran is comfortable with using both Twitter and Facebook. She has wisely decided to stop her Twitter posts from posting to her Facebook wall and wants to now only have Facebook posts go to her Twitter feed.

This is smart because posting multiple times per day on Twitter is great, while posting multiple times on Facebook can be annoying at best and tune out your customers at worst.

So please keep in mind; that I do not recommend this strategy to everyone… and I do not think that it is the correct way to go in all circumstances. This situation worked for Fran. How you choose to post on your networks is entirely up to you and depends on where your comfort level lies and where your community will respond best to your efforts.

Social media, while there are a few hard rules — it is a marketing tool that should be used strategically. Not all networks work together and not all posts belong on each network.

How to connect Facebook and Twitter

How to connect your FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE to TWITTER

Log in to the Facebook account you want to associate with your Facebook profile.

In the URL bar type http://facebook.com/twitter

You will see options to link your personal page and an option for your business page.

Click Link to Twitter

Choose what activities you would like linked.

Save Changes

Your Facebook posts will now post to your Twitter feed.

Tip: Be mindful that Twitter only allows 140(ish) characters while Facebook now allows 5,000 characters. You might want to do a follow up Tweet if you post a long facebook post that goes on Twitter.

How to connect your TWITTER account to a FACEBOOK Business Page

Log in to the Twitter account you want to associate with your Facebook profile.

If you posted or have seen posts with the following status update…. don’t bother it’s just hooey.

PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning – any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other “picture” art posted on my profile. You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee, agent, student or any personnel under your direction or control.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law.

UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

This surge and flurry of status updates is from a Nov. 21st post by facebook when they updated their privacy notifications with this Proposed Updates to our Governing Documents post. The gist of that proposed update is, facebook announced it would let users comment on proposed changes to its governing documents, but not vote.

The truth is that when you signed up on facebook, you confirmed that you accept Facebook’s legal terms, including its privacy policy and terms and policies. “You cannot alter your acceptance to that agreement, nor can you restrict the rights of entities who are not parties to that agreement, simply by posting a notice to your Facebook account or citing the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) or the Berne Convention,” says facebook.

You, as a Facebook user own the intellectual property rights to all content you upload to the social network, but depending on your privacy settings, you grant the social network “a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License)”.

if you don’t like facebook policies, you can do any of these to protect yourself:
1. refuse to join Facebook
2. cancel your account
3. negotiate a modified policy with Facebook if you do not agree to the terms and conditions.

Both Facebook and its users are still bound to the same terms and conditions that are accepted by users when they sign up for the service. If Facebook ever significantly changed its privacy settings, it would have to notify users about the changes to those terms.Although Facebook is now a publicly traded company, that has no affect on how it treats your data and privacy. In no way does it mean your information on Facebook is publicly traded — it just means that you are able to buy a share of the company on the stock market. –Mashable

Do you find these tips and tricks useful, and you want to show a bit o’ love, then feel free to click the cup and buy a girl a cup of coffee as a thanks. [rps-paypal]

Here are 3 tips to adjust your facebook settings so you see who and what you want to see. …and I betcha you didn’t even know you could.

1. Change your news feed settings to Most Recent click the little arrow just above the first post in your news feed > choose Most Recent

2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/friends/organizeThis facebook tool will walk you through how to adjust your friends to the specific settings you want (Acquaintances, Close Friends etc…)

3. Customize who, what and how much you see from Friends.Click the arrow on a friends post in the news feed. Chose Hide (you can change it back) You will then get the option to change what updates you get from …choose the settings you want and then don’t forget to click unhide. This is an exceptionally good tool to use for that person who is addicted to games.

Do you find these tips and tricks useful, and you want to show a bit o’ love, then feel free to click the cup and buy a girl a cup of coffee as a thanks.

There’s a lot of blogger chatter that Facebook pages are slipping away in your news feed. People say that facebook wants brands to buy promoted posts or ads, so page posts aren’t showing up in friends news feeds.

Local businesses rely on you to see their content.

Here’s what you can do to add businesses and brands that you want to hear from, to your news feed.

It’s very simple: Click on the Like icon on the right of the business page. Choose Get Notifications, Show in News Feed and/or Add to Interest Lists.

If a business, brand or friend has a Friend page and not a business page… be sure to Subscribe and their posts will always find their way to your news feed.

Remember, you have control over what you see in the facebook news feed. If you see a great post and want to see more like it, just click, Like, comment, or share. See something stupid or annoying? Hit the drop-down arrow next to it and hide the update or report it as spam.

These tips teach Facebook what you like, and will make your news feed live up to its potential as a source for what you truly care about.

For more facebook and social media tips.. check out my facebook page and click show in news feed!

If you have any thoughts on this or have seen a difference in your news feed lately I’d love to hear your comments.

The following 10 Tips and How To’s are exactly what you need to know to build an effective facebook page like a pro!jl_facebookhowto

By now you realize that just having a page isn’t enough. You need to engage and offer value to your customers, fans and followers. Your Facebook business page is like a huge billboard except that it’s free. Your customers are there, their friends are there. And you can say a heck of a lot more on a Facebook page than you can on a billboard.

Pick a namePicking a name seems like a simple task, but you need to make sure that you pick a name that is consistent with what your customers know you by – so that they’ll find you when running a search. Use your businesses full name ..but don’t fill the space with anything generic like Pancake Palace-the best pancakes around. Just keep it simple and clear Pancake Palace.
Keep in mind that if you have multiple locations or plan to have more locations or divisions in the future, you’ll want to keep that name consistent — so choose wisely. Tip: Keep that name within 25 characters. Not only is it simply good practice to keep it short, but it’s vital for effective marketing and advertising.

Create a vanity URLThe best way to easily promote your facebook page, is by placing your vanity URL into emails, fliers, website etc..
My vanity URL is facebook.com/jenlewmarketing.
Read my post about building a Linkedin page, I explain in more detail why this is necessary. In short facebook user names present a better opportunity for you to promote your page clearly and effectively to obtain more Likes.How to claim yours: Edit > Update Info > UserName(as of writing this, facebook allows a name to be changed once and you must have over 25 Likes to claim a vanity URL)

Update your About sectionThe most effective way to drive traffic, maintain awareness and build customer loyalty is to keep your customers informed. Describe your company in detail, include your website, hours, location, reviews and any and all information pertaining to your business. The more facts and information the better. However, I do not suggest fluffing your page with a ton of quotes or political opinions ….leave that stuff for your personal page.
Completing your about section will optimize your page for Search Engines (SEO). Facebook pages are indexed by Google! You need to load the About section with keywords, just as you should do on your website.How to update your About section: (Admin Panel > Edit Page > Update Info), update the Description, Mission, Awards and Products, filling it with relevant keywords.
Now… Google will be able to find you… for free! There that’s your first lesson in SEO.

Cover Photo & Profile PhotoUtilizing these will assist in building a dynamic Page. Do not over look the importance of your brands image and logo as your cover/profile photo. Facebook timeline offers a huge landscape to tell the story of your business. There are two important elements Cover Photo & Profile Photo.
Cover photo dimensions are 851 x 315 pixels, profile photos 180×180 px. Facebook says you are not allowed to “promote” your business in the Cover Photo area but I’ve always been one to do things until I’m scolded for it… and this is an area to follow my lead on being that kindof rebel. If you want to simply upload a photo as your cover image — You can adjust a photo to fit in the space but I highly recommend creating dynamic and fresh art work incorporating your logo, and timely promotional information in this area.
Your profile photo should be your logo or a specific photo of what it is that your business sells. If YOU are your business or if you are known as the face of your business I highly recommend including your photo AND your logo in your profile photo. People want to hear from people, so try to use an engaging image that is welcoming and friendly.If you need art work for your facebook page please email me for rates. jen at jen lew dot com.

Apps n’ TabsUtilize your facebook page to promote your other social networks, e-marketing lists, blog or website! The App/Tabs area (below your cover photo) features clickable images that are important to your business success. This is an area that a lot of businesses neglect. There is no reason not to utilize this area to it’s fullest extent, plus Facebook has made it easier to incorporate a few other social networks you are hopefully already using like Instagram, Pinterest, Various E-Marketing tools etc.. the possibilities in this area are endless and is fully customizable. With a bit of tweaking and original art work this area can be unique to you and your business.To change the apps on your timeline: Toggle the arrow on the Right side of your Timeline App section > On the top right corner of each app the dropdown offers the option to Swap position with: > highlight the app you want to be visible and swap with one already listed. To change the image Click Edit Settings at the bottom of the dialogue box > click custom tab image.
For custom/unique images and develop custom apps for your page that are unique to your business please email jen at jen lew dot com.

Create MilestonesThis is a great opportunity to tell your story and let your customers know about you throughout your pages Timeline. Create Milestones and talk about where your brand has been and how far you’ve come. Attach related photos to those stories. Share with your fans when your doors opened, take a picture of your first dollar, what new offerings you created… Get creative!To create Milestones: Click Event, Milestones tab at the status section > Input information > Upload photo > Save.

Featured Likes
This is not only a great resource if you have multiple facebook pages related to your business, but you can build community engagement by liking other businesses in your area or promote products that your business sells.
Within the Likes box under your Cover Photo, five of your Page’s Likes will be featured. By default, the Pages that are displayed here will be random… you should customize them and chose the ones you want.How to control your featured likes: Admin Panel > Manage > Edit Page > Featured.

Assign Administrator RolesIf you manage your Page yourself and no one else will touch it, you can feel free to skip this part. But if you have a person or team helping out, you need to consider assigning roles. Think about who will monitor your page(s) effectively. Allow for various levels of control with Facebook Page admin roles. How to assign facebook admin roles: Edit Page > Admin roles > Type names of people > Click role > Save Changes.

Develop a StrategyThis is vital to building a successful facebok page. Now that your page is looking good, you have to set up a successful strategy of what you are going to post. Randomly posting about different things as the mood strikes you is not going to best utilize your time, efforts and pages effectively… especially if you are trusting someone else to do it for you.To create an effective strategy: I suggest beginning with the WWWH method: Who – Why – What – HowWho: In my opinion the key to effective social media is determining your business voice — is it serious, silly, informative, fun? Your best guidline to determine this voice is emmulating how you speak to customers in person. If you find you answer the same questions over and over to guests or clients or investors… then find ways to create engaging answers to those questions and post online. Why: Determine your goals? Do you want to focus on new customers or maintain loyalty of current customers? Do you need to broaden your over all reach? Do you want to engage more with fans friends and followers on their pages and post less? What: Do you like to promote timely information and offer timed specials? Continue asking the big overall questions and then form a calendar to outline How. I can not stress the importance of a strategy enough. Answering these questions and developing will make posting much easier and more effective.

Create a Content CalendarHow: Mapping out your posting schedule and creating an events calendar a few weeks in advance will not only benefit your bottom line, but is the best way to coordinate your internal calendar with your external promotional calendar.

For example: your business is launching a new product in April. You and/or your marketing team should discuss the launch and all the elements involved so you can use social networks to drive awareness and interest. Decide if there will be posts leading up to the launch in March and May too?

Use the admin roles management tool and determine who will be posting and at what times. Creating content ideas and themes of topics to discuss in a calendar eliviates the guess work and the allusive . “i don’t know what to post today — eh…i’ll think of something tomorrow” syndrome.

I am aware that everyone reading this is a busy entreprenuer with a multitude of tasks and to to do’s on your list.

I know, Tips #10 & #11will go in one ear, and then out the other. You probably won’t do it. It’s my greatest challenge with every client. I do it for you and just taking the time to collaborate on forecasting the months/years ahead is challenging. This is why companies hire internal marketing departments and Social Media Consultants, I can not stress enough the importance of building structure, and consistency in your brand voice.
But once you do it… it will make your life much easier and all your efforts much more worthwhile.

Yay, i’s time to start Posting!Stay tuned for next weeks post about how to post effectively on facebook and increase your Likes! In the meantime… build up that page and keep in touch with your customers, fans and followers!

I love your questions!! Please share them below in the comments section or on twitter and facebook… don’t be shy! I often get emails from people who ask similar questions. By posting your questions publicly, everyone can benefit.
I’d also love to hear if you found this post helpful… the more I hear from you.. the more effective these posts can be!

YouTube Gallery Easy tool to add a YouTube gallery to your facebook page. AppBistro has made it simple.

TopTab Install a contest app to engage fans and followers and offer your products and services to a lucky winner. Easy to install with TopTab.

Surveys and Polls Gain customer feedback and learn more about your brand. Online surveys are by far the fastest and cheapest modes to collect information and feedback from users. App Storm created this great list of simple apps to add to your facebook page.

Check back here or join my email list for updates on this convenient and practical list. With the rate of constant change …I’m sure it will be updated soon.

In the time it takes for you to be reading this post, you could have glanced at a photo understood what it was all about and gone back to work, and thinking about how you should have posted a video to promote your product.

Here are 21 awesome reasons why you should be posting visual content on behalf of your business across a varied number of social sites.

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

Out of 100 people, 40% will respond better to visual information than plain text.

a website’s design is the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the company say’s a whopping 46.1% of people.

Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t.

Posts with videos attract 3 times more inbound links than plain text posts.

Visual content drives engagement. In fact, just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual content — photos and videos — saw a 65% increase in engagement.

On Facebook, photos perform best for likes, comments, and shares as compared to text, video, and links.

37% of Pinterest account holders log in a few times every week; Pinterest is an all visual site, that has rapidly become the third largest social media site, based on its number of site visits March 2012.

98% of people surveyed with a Pinterest account said they also have a Facebook and/or Twitter account. side note: those accounts should be linked.

Pinterest generated more referral traffic for businesses than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined.

Pinterest drives sales directly from its website — of people with Pinterest accounts, 21% have purchased an item after seeing it on Pinterest.

85% of the US internet audience watches videos online. The 25-34 age group watches the most online videos, and adult males spend 40% more time watching videos on the internet than females.

“I’d rather watch a video, than read” – that’s what he said. Over 60 hours of videos are uploaded each minute on YouTube.com.

700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute.

Viewers spend 100% more time on pages with videos on them.

Mobile video viewing increased 35% from 2010 to 2011.

25 million smartphone users stream 4 hours of mobile video per month. 75% of smartphone users watch videos on their phones, 26% of whom use video at least once a day.

Mobile video subscription is expected to hit $16 billion in revenue by 2014, with over 500 million subscribers.

Viewers are 85% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video.

Mobile photo sharing sites like Instagram are now a part of our future and is one of the fastest growing social media trends of the last few years.

Instagram has accumulated 15 million users who have uploaded more than 400 million photos in less than two years.

In June 2012, facebook did what some are refering to as… hijacking your email address.
In the dead of night they automatically switched your email address that you added to your account, with a @facebook.com email address.

To change it back, you need to do the following:

Go to your Timeline. Click about, under your contact info.

Scroll down to “Contact Info” and hit edit.

Switch all of the crossed out circle symbols to a full circle for each inbox you want visible on your profile.

If you don’t want @facebook.com to show up, switch it from a full circle (“Shown on Timeline”) to crossed out (“Hidden from Timeline”).

This is also a good opportunity to check your privacy settings and make sure your various inboxes are visible only to friendlies. Hit save.

This bothers me considerably, not because they did it without warning – because let’s be honest they do everything without warning and the service is free so c’mon I don’t really mind. It bothers me because one of the many reasons why I rely on facebook is for this feature. Often I can’t find or don’t remember a persons email and always relied on their facebook page for the info.

So I beg of you, please add an email address that I can reach you back to your profile, if for any other reason than for my convenience and others who can’t seem to remember your middle name that’s used in your gmail address.